Mask keeper

ABSTRACT

An illustrated view of an exemplary mask keeper device for preventing the loss or misplacement of a protective mask is presented. The mask keeper device is useful for preventing a protective mask from being misplaced or lost. The mask keeper device is also useful for identifying the protective mask such that it is not confused with another&#39;s mask and thus exchanged. The mask keeper device is further useful for having a unique protective mask and mask keeper device combination.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to protective mask. More particularly, it relates to a device to keep the protective mask from being lost.

BACKGROUND

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the United States in January 2020. The first confirmed case of local transmission was recorded in January, while the first known deaths happened in February. By the end of March, cases had occurred in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and all inhabited U.S. territories except American Samoa. As of Jun. 24, 2020, the U.S. had the most confirmed active cases and deaths in the world. As of Jul. 16, 2020, its death rate was 419 per million people, the seventh-highest rate globally.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has issued a recommendation to the US population for prevention of contracting COVID 19 as well as other infectious diseases. Those recommendations are: 1) wash hands often; 2) avoid close contact (social distancing); 3) cover mouth and nose with a cloth face cover when around others; 4) cover cough or sneezes; 5) dean and disinfect; and 6) monitor your health daily.

A protective mask, an item of personal protective equipment (PPE), aims to protect the wearer's is designed to protect a person from potentially infectious materials by covering the nose and mouth of the person from air-born virus'. With the recent CDC guidelines for COVID-19 pandemic, many have turned to masks that cover at least a part of their face, in particular their nose and mouth. Protective masks are pieces of kit or equipment worn on the head and face to afford protection to the wearer, and today usually have these functions: providing a supply of air or filtering the outside air (respirators and dust masks).

Although protective masks are important and should (must) be worn to protect not only the person wearing the protective mask but also those around them, the protective masks can easily be mislaid, lost and/or damaged when the person is in a location that allows them to take the protective mask off. Also, when children wear a protective mask at school, they may confuse their protective mask with that of another child.

Accordingly, an in light of the foregoing, there is a need for a device that can prevent the protective mask from being lost or misplaced. Furthermore, there is also a need for the device to prevent losing or misplacing the protective mask and providing an easy method to place the protective mask into a protective state. The device should also have an identifier that would be used to detect the owner/wearer of the protective mask.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an illustrated view of an exemplary mask keeper device.

FIG. 2 are illustrated views categories and designs for the exemplary mask keeper device shown in FIG. 1 .

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The phrases “in one embodiment,” “in various embodiments,” “in some embodiments,” and the like are used repeatedly. Such phrases do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. The terms “comprising,” “having,” and “including” are synonymous, unless the context dictates otherwise. Such terms do not generally signify a closed list.

“Above,” “adhesive,” “affixing,” “any,” “around,” “both,” “bottom,” “by,” “comprising,” “consistent,” “customized,” “enclosing,” “friction,” “in,” “labeled,” “lower,” “magnetic,” “marked,” “new,” “nominal,” “not,” “of,” “other,” “outside,” “outwardly,” “particular,” “permanently,” “preventing,” “raised,” “respectively,” “reversibly,” “round,” “square,” “substantial,” “supporting,” “surrounded,” “surrounding,” “threaded,” “to,” “top,” “using,” “wherein,” “with,” or other such descriptors herein are used in their normal yes-or-no sense, not as terms of degree, unless context dictates otherwise.

Reference is now made in detail to the description of the embodiments as illustrated in the drawings. While embodiments are described in connection with the drawings and related descriptions, there is no intent to limit the scope to the embodiments disclosed herein. On the contrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalents. In alternate embodiments, additional devices, or combinations of illustrated devices, may be added to, or combined, without limiting the scope to the embodiments disclosed herein.

Referring to FIG. 1 , an illustrated view of an exemplary mask keeper device 100 for preventing the loss or misplacement of a protective mask is presented. The mask keeper device 100 is useful for preventing a protective mask from being misplaced or lost. The mask keeper device 100 is also useful for identifying the protective mask such that it is not confused with another's mask and thus exchanged. The mask keeper device 100 is further useful for having a unique protective mask and mask keeper device 100 combination.

A person 900 has a face 901 with a nose 902, two ears 904, 905, a head 906, a back neck 907 and a mouth 903 and a protective mask 950. The protective mask 950 has a cover 951 and a plurality of ear hoops 952, 953. The cover 951 of the protective mask 950 is placed over the nose 902 and mouth 903 of the person 900. A first of the ear hoops 952 is coupled to a first of the ears 904 and a second of the ear hoops 953 is coupled to a second of the ears 905, thus providing a secure coupling when the protective mask 950 is being worn.

The mask keeper device 100 has a retainer 120, a plurality of clips 140, 150 and a plurality of decorative accessory holders 160, 170. The retainer 120 is preferably made of a lanyard material, however other materials are hereby contemplated, including, but not limited to, string, beads, rope, cotton, etc. The retainer 120 is preferably eighteen inches (18″) in length, however other lengths are hereby contemplated, including but not limited to, fifteen inches (15″), twenty-four inches (24″), etc.

The retainer 120 has a first end 121, a second end 122, an open area 123 and a middle 124. The retainer 120 is placed around the head 906 of the person 900 such that the head 906 is in the open area 123 of the retainer 120. The middle 124 of the retainer 120 is on a back neck 907 of the person 900.

A first of the one or more clips 140 is coupled to the first end 121 of the retainer 120. The second of the one or more clips 150 is coupled to the second end 122 of the retainer 120. The one or more clips 140 are preferably made of a metal material, however, other types of materials are hereby contemplated, including, but not limited to, plastic, poly-vinyl chloride (PVC), etc.

The first of the clips 140 is further removably and securely coupled to the first of the ear hoops 952. The second of the clips 150 is further removably and securely coupled to the second of the ear hoops 953. Thus, the retainer 120 is securely coupled to the protective mask 950.

The decorative accessory holders 160, 170 are further presented in FIG. 2 . The plurality of decorative accessories and shown in a larger view. Each of the decorative accessories 160, 170 have a snap 161, 171. The snap 161, 171 are useful for opening of the decorative accessories 160, 170 and then close to securely couple the decorative accessories 160, 170 to significantly near the first end 121 and the second end of the retainer 120.

One or more decorative accessories 180 are identical in design and will be shown as the first of the decorative accessories 180 where one of skill in the art would recognize that a second of the decorative accessories (see FIG. 1B) could be the same or different designs. The first of the decorative accessories 180, in this instance a butterfly 601 (shown in FIG. 1B), has a first side 182, a second side 183 and the snap 181. The snap 181 is preferably located in a middle 184 of the first of the decorative accessories 180. The retainer 120 is configured to be between the first side 182 and the second side 183 of the first of the decorative accessories 180. The first side 182 and the second side 183 are then pushed or squeezed together to engage the snap 181 at a desired location.

FIG. 2 shows categories and a sample of designs for the decorative accessories 180.

The sample of the categories are girls 600, boys 650, general 700 and lifestyle 750.

For the girls 600 category, a sample designs are the butterfly 601, a sparkly purple heart 602 and a sparkly flower 603, however one of skill in the art would easily recognize that this is not an exhausted list and other designs are hereby contemplated.

For the boys 650 category, a sample designs are a football 651, a baseball 652 and a dinosaur 653, however one of skill in the art would easily recognize that this is not an exhausted list and other designs are hereby contemplated.

For the general 700 category, a sample designs are a Christmas tree 701, a pumpkin 702, a four-leaf clover 703 and an American flag 704, however one of skill in the art would easily recognize that this is not an exhausted list and other designs are hereby contemplated.

For the lifestyle 750 category, a sample designs are a wine glass 751, a video game controller 752, a bingo board 753 and a beer mug 754, however one of skill in the art would easily recognize that this is not an exhausted list and other designs are hereby contemplated.

In the numbered clauses below, specific combinations of aspects and embodiments are articulated in a shorthand form such that (1) according to respective embodiments, for each instance in which a “component” or other such identifiers appear to be introduced (with “a” or “an,” e.g.) more than once in a given chain of clauses, such designations may either identify the same entity or distinct entities; and (2) what might be called “dependent” clauses below may or may not incorporate, in respective embodiments, the features of “independent” clauses to which they refer or other features described above.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the foregoing specific exemplary processes and/or devices and/or technologies are representative of more general processes and/or devices and/or technologies taught elsewhere herein, such as in the claims filed herewith and/or elsewhere in the present application.

The features described with respect to one embodiment may be applied to other embodiments or combined with or interchanged with the features of other embodiments, as appropriate, without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Other embodiments of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the invention disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the invention being indicated by the following claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A mask keeper device for preventing the loss or misplacement of a protective mask, the device comprising: a retainer, the retainer having a first end, a second end, a middle; a plurality of clips, a first of the clips being coupled to the first end of the retainer, wherein the first of the clips being further securely and removably coupled to a first ear hoop of a protective mask, and wherein the second of the clips being further securely and removably coupled to a second ear hoop of the protective mask; a plurality of decorative accessory holders, each of the decorative accessory holders having a first side, a second side, a middle and a snap, a first of the decorative accessories being coupled to significantly near the first end of the retainer, a second of the decorative accessory holders being coupled to significantly near the second end of the retainer; and one or more decorative accessories, each of the decorative accessories having a first side, a second side, a middle and a snap, a first of the decorative accessories being coupled to the snap of the decorative accessory holder significantly near the first end of the retainer.
 2. The device of claim 1, wherein the retainer having a length being eighteen inches (18″).
 3. The device of claim 1, wherein the retainer being a lanyard material.
 4. The device of claim 1, wherein the decorative accessories being divided into one or more categories.
 5. The device of claim 4, wherein a first of the categories of the decorative accessories being for girls.
 6. The device of claim 5, wherein the decorative accessories being a butterfly design.
 7. The device of claim 4, wherein a second of the category of decorative accessories being for boys.
 8. The device of claim 7, wherein the decorative accessories being a football design.
 9. The device of claim 4, wherein a third of the category of decorative accessories being a general category.
 10. The device of claim 9, wherein the decorative accessories being an American flag design.
 11. The device of claim 4, wherein a fourth of the category of decorative accessories being a lifestyle category.
 12. The device of claim 11, wherein the decorative accessories being a wine glass design. 